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October 3, 2007

Amanda Palmer Covers "Everybody Hurts"

As we mentioned in the original Drive XV post, nothing speaks to the influence Automatic For The People's had on the current crop of indie rockers more directly than the amazing number of high-caliber artists who expressed interest in contributing to the compilation. So now that the word on our little Automatic party is out, we can get to the good business of presenting to you the slew of bonus tracks the comp yielded. First up: the Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer, joined by Cormac Bride on "Everybody Hurts."


[Pic from the Dresden Dolls @ Webster Hall 4/22/06]

In his essay, Matthew said "Everybody Hurts" may well be the single most sympathetic and compassionate song about teenage depression of all time. But hey, that's heavy, and Amanda's words on the cut have less to do with that painfully emotional adolescent place, and more to do with how her rendition came together. She writes:

I had just landed from the UK and got an email from Stereogum at around 5 pm that they wanted a cover of an REM song. It sounded like fun, but they had a deadline, and I was only in town for two more days. I said yes anyway and then about 13 minutes later Cormac called randomly to say 'hi,' so I asked if he would come over at night with his guitar, but the computer was being weird and we only had two working tracks, and we wanted to record it totally live, and I didn't know how to fix it, and so we called Noah, who was at the Columbus having drinks with Troy, and he didn't want to come back to fix it right then, so I called Vessela next door to see if maybe she wanted to come over and record a track of names of people she had hurt in her Bulgarian accent because I thought that would be great and we would add Max with a people he had hurt in his British accent and Lee would add a list with Lee in his Montana accent and Cormac and I would both do a hurt list too and then we'd have this great jumble of names of hurt people .... and Vessela said sure and Max said sure and Lee said sure and I told them we were waiting for Noah to come back and fix the computer and Vessela said maybe troy could fix it and I said but he's with Noah at the bar. And Noah finally came home and we finally recorded it at 2:30 in the morning, and then we were done and everybody who was going to record names of people they had wronged had gone to bed so we didn't get to do that part. Don't throw your hand.
And that's how it happened. The Amanda track MP3 is a 'Gum Drop exclusive, but that doesn't mean you can't get your stream on. To listen to the cut (or to get situated for "Everybody Hurts" MP3 delivery), head here.

Lots more bonus tracks to come. Enjoy.

Posted at 12:15 PM in
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16 Comments

I will never understand how people listen to the Dresden Dolls. This is pretty bad.

Posted by: jneslo at 10/03/07 12:40 PM | Reply
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seriously? the dolls are great in my ears.

Posted by: clamps at 10/03/07 1:19 PM | Reply
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I'm not entirely sold on the dresden dolls but I saw an amanda palmer solo show in ny a few months back and she was fantastic. This cover is interesting. not great, but cool and kind of creepy sounding. Plus its free, so how can we really complain. I think its awesome that stereogum is doing these covers albums.

Posted by: wldrpretnd at 10/03/07 2:48 PM | Reply
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give her a break her dad was a great golfer.

Posted by: dannygutters at 10/03/07 3:38 PM | Reply
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i love amanda- such a natural performer. but, it would've been better if she covered another song because her voice isn't right for this one.

Posted by: audiotaco at 10/03/07 7:43 PM | Reply
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whaa hoo. stupendous!

Posted by: eggyolk at 10/04/07 6:30 PM | Reply
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WOW! That was a great track.

Quite frankly I'd sell my soul for one kiss from Amanda... And Brian.

All or nothing y'know.

Posted by: SubCulture Hero at 10/04/07 6:43 PM | Reply
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Oh...
THANKS for that!

tom

Posted by: Tom (Copper Age) at 10/04/07 6:57 PM | Reply
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The Dresden Dolls.....Brechtian.....yep...exactly

they sure did feel quite a sense of alienation

verfremdunseffekt at it's worst.

stick to your own tunes...
leave the covers for the originals to do them.

Posted by: DV at 10/04/07 9:15 PM | Reply
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I enjoyed it, interesting choice in pitch and tone.

Posted by: randall at 10/04/07 9:38 PM | Reply
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good stuff! The Dresden Dolls are my new addiction. I really love Amanda! She's an incredible performer, especially live.

Posted by: Rio at 10/04/07 9:42 PM | Reply
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>I will never understand how people listen to the Dresden Dolls. This is pretty bad.

That's why opinions and taste are so wonderful. People like what you don't like, and you can come off as an ass.

Posted by: Krist. at 10/04/07 10:59 PM | Reply
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i think its intresting, i love amanda she is good at making you feel the stuffs she sings.

Posted by: morgs at 10/04/07 11:23 PM | Reply
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Awesome!

Posted by: chunkyd77 at 10/05/07 12:36 AM | Reply
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What a lovely, haunting version of the song. Very stark and bleak, but there's a certain beauty in that.

Posted by: coffeethrall at 10/05/07 8:42 AM | Reply
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Well, I have been taught quite a few thing by Amanda's example in life. The bohemian revolution is here!!! lol :)

Posted by: Star at 10/06/07 1:23 AM | Reply
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